The new Medicare prescription drug benefit presents major marketing challenges for both the competing drug plans and officials at CMS and SSA. While the feds must conduct a massive outreach campaign to educate 43 million Medicare beneficiaries about the complex program, the drug plan sponsors must market their plan designs, which vary widely in delivery, cost sharing, and formularies.

Yet, the challenges don’t end there. The Medicare population is not homogeneous, media stereotypes notwithstanding. Beneficiaries vary widely by income, assets, age, disability status, setting, ethnicity, and existing drug coverage. Almost 70 percent already have prescription drug coverage without Part D. Those without drug coverage are a diverse mix of rich and poor, healthy and sick, active and isolated, urban and rural. As a group, American seniors are one of the wealthiest cohorts in world history but among them, there are many low-income seniors struggling every day.

Traditional, television-centric marketing tactics are necessary but not sufficient to reach Medicare’s diverse population and offer the benefits of Part D, particularly the substantial savings available through the low-income subsidy. To differentiate themselves in a crowded market and maximize both enrollment and retention, Medicare prescription drug plans need to adopt a more sophisticated, multi-facetted array of marketing tactics and mediums. Among them, viral or word-of-mouth marketing is essential. In addition to being extremely effective in situations like this, the costs and risks are low.

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The Piper Report blog on healthcare business and policy covers issues in Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act, with articles, interviews, resources, primers, book reviews, and more. Edited by Kip Piper, CEO of Medonomics.